Articles from Australia

The size of Australia’s biggest proposed wind farm has been scaled back by about 20 per cent, in a decision the Andrews Government says will help to protect the increasingly besieged native brolga. Brolgas are threatened every way they turn in Victoria, an environmental effects statement about the proposed Golden Plains wind farm found.

The audit was clear in its criticism of the transmission lines, saying it appeared “road safety was given only limited consideration during the planning and design.” “The cumulative risks to the public are not insignificant and will remain for many decades,” the audit said.

As a result of grid connections risks, Windlab Limited (ASX: WND) has lost its only investor in Queensland. After the UK investor InfraRed Capital Partners taken away the 106-megawatt (MW) Lakeland Wind Farm project situated in the south of Cooktown, Queensland, the share price of the company took a deep downward fall.

Mr Zakula claims the constant humming drives him out of his home in the early hours of the morning to sleep in his car on the side of the road or even at his brother’s home in Melbourne. “It’s becoming unbearable and … I’m not, I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Mr Zakula told A Current Affair while he prepared his car for bed.

Below is the transcript of a news report produced by the Australian show "A Current Affair" that discusses the difficulty of living in proximity to a commercial wind energy facility. The show is only available from within Australia. The website https://stopthesethings.com/ posted the information.

The Victorian Government has changed the rules around the testing of wind turbine noise at all new wind farm developments. The new regulations follow an unsatisfactory independent audit of wind turbines at the Lal Lal Wind Farm, which is under construction near Ballarat.

“While the approval of wind farms go through a rigorous statutory planning permit process administered by the Minister for Planning, communities are questioning the strategic approach to wind farms in terms of social, economic and environmental impacts,” it says.

Wind Energy Partners say the delay is the result of extra studies on the project’s visual and noise impacts, which have been undertaken in response to community concerns. Meanwhile, the Hills of Gold Preservation group met in Nundle on Thursday night, to highlight a number of concerns regarding the 98-turbine project.

The French-owned renewable energy developer Neoen says there is a risk that wind farms in South Australia could face a class action suit over the state-wide blackout in September, 2016. The risk was cited in Neoen’s documentation for its upcoming initial public offering, where it will seek to raise $A850 million in a share market float.

A class-action lawsuit is being planned against a local council, the Victorian government and a wind farm operator after an independent review accepted resident complaints that noise from a Gippsland wind farm was causing them harm.

Noise from a wind farm in Victoria's Gippsland is having an adverse impact on the comfort and wellbeing of residents living at surrounding properties, a new report commissioned by a local council has found.

A “termination for convenience” clause has been written into contracts for three new wind farms and three new solar farms selected under a reverse auction scheme as part of the Andrews government’s ambitious state ­renewable energy target.

The shire council must finally acknowledge that the neighbours of the Bald Hills Wind Farm, their own ratepayers, have a legitimate gripe under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act and support them in their attempts to get redress from the operator and the State Government. And the State Government must finally admit that it allowed the turbines to be sited too close to the existing farm houses for them not to cause a noise nuisance.

The report by Mr Smith, an expert in public health follows a botched attempt by the shire to investigate the complaints itself between May and November 2016, after which the shire produced a finding of “no nuisance” in January 2017 before telling the affected property owners that the case was closed in April 2017. But it wasn’t closed and the complainants took Supreme Court action to get a proper investigation. The matter is due to go back to the Supreme Court on November 26, two days after the next state election.

Without subsidies and the ongoing presence of backup power based on fossil-fuel generation, the outlook for more renewable energy in Australia is extremely uncertain. Indeed, without the intervention of governments, the salad days for renewable energy will quickly fade, something the sector understands. That’s why the energy policy debate is so important to them — and to all of us.

But Mr Arthur said the problem was onsite, not off-site and the result of any problem with the transmission infrastructure or substation. “There may be issues with warranties and the like and I don’t want to go into it at this stage except to say we hope it’s right by sometime next week (this week),” he said last Thursday.

Like dogs with a taste for worrying sheep, politicians are addicted to continuing their destructive interventions in energy supply. And they have created an endless supply of officials and vested interests who will tell them how they can vary those interventions but they have little stomach for disengaging and allowing the market the freedom to operate without regulations and guidance.

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